District 13: Ultimatum

District 13: Ultimatum
I didn't like it as much as the first one.
Where the first one was non-stop action,
this one slows down a bit.
It has a similar plot to the first one but
this one had more characters
(some weren't developed well enough).

Some cool action scenes made it alright.

District B13

District B13
Badass French action film we got here.
Written by Luc Besson.
Non stop action.
I was blown away from the very beginning.
The sequel to this (which I'll be seeing tomorrow)
played at Fantastic Fest last year.
That's how I heard about it.
There's a few likeable characters.
The fighting scenes were okay.
But, what kicked ass, was
the chase scene where that one dude
was jumping all over the place.
Good solid story.

Fucking "A" in my book.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

New Release Tuesdays Presents:


The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Fantastic show!!
Another typical Terry Gilliam fantasy film.
Love the originality.
Tom Waits plays a good devil.
Enjoyed the film as a whole, but
it's not up there with my favorite Gilliam films
(which are Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Brazil,
and 12 Monkeys).
One of my favorite scenes in this, is the trippy musical
scene with the Russians.
The ending was a bit confusing to me, but
it felt magical.

If you're fan of Terry Gilliam, this is a must see.
For everyone else, this is a decent picture that needs to
be seen more than once.

Combat Shock

Combat Shock
Troma's version of Taxi Driver mixed with a little

bit of Eraserhead.
This movie made me itch and scratch a lot because of all the

mess that's in here.
I didn't like this movie.

But, there's certain moments that get a little crazy.

If you're watching anything that's distributed from

Troma Studios, you should know what to expect:

Not a serious movie, but cheesy and fucked up at the same time.

Scanners

Catching Up With A Director Segment

This month's director is David Cronenberg.
Earlier today, I saw The Dead Zone.
Tonight, I wrap up this month's director
with one of his earliest cult masterpiece:


Scanners
A little trippy with a grindhouse feel.
Enjoyed it.
Famous head explosion of the early 80's.
I saw Cronenberg's style big time in here.
Most of his films have to do with transformation, changes,
and/or deformities of the human body.
And this is no exception.
Another kudos.

I've become more of a fan of this director after
having seeing most of his films.
I'll eventually see his other films that I didn't
get a chance to see yet (Rabid, Naked Lunch, and etc.).

In my opinion, Cronenberg does not have a bad film
(at least on the ones I've seen).
So, here's my most favorite to least favorite:
Eastern Promises
The Fly
A History of Violence
The Brood
The Dead Zone
Dead Ringers
Videodrome
Scanners
Spider
Crash

The Dead Zone

Catching Up With A Director Segment

This month's director is David Cronenberg.
And now for the fourth Cronenberg film this month:

The Dead Zone
Basic story that kicks ass.
Christopher Walken's character is very convincing.
Martin Sheen plays one hell of an evil politician.
Kudos to Cronenberg for another great movie.
I heard about this movie a long time ago.
For some reason, I never had the chance to see it.
I'm glad I did now.
This is up there with my most favorites.

Dead Ringers

Catching Up With A Director Segment

This month's director is David Cronenberg.
Last night, I saw two of his exploitation films,
and tonight is one of his breakthrough films.


Dead Ringers
This is now my favorite performance by Jeremy Irons.
Subtle film by Cronenberg.
I like that he doesn't go over the top for the
sake of going over the top, but instead, he does it
with style. This is another movie that reminds me of
"The Fly." Tragic story.

Identical twins can be hectic.
Cronenberg classic.

The Brood / Videodrome

Friday at the Grindhouse
and
Catching Up With A Director Segment
Presents:

A David Cronenberg Double Feature

This month, I'll be watching five films I've never seen
before from director David Cronenberg.
The only ones I've seen are:
The Fly
Crash
Spider
A History of Violence
and Eastern Promises.

He's got a lot of other films,
including his early works, which are mostly Canadian exploitation films.
So, to kill two birds with one stone,
tonight's Grindhouse screening are two back to back
exploitation films from Cronenberg.


The Brood
Twisted flick. Loved it.
These "abnormal" kids gave me the chills.
This movie reminded me of "The Fly."
It gives you some information little by little,
then at the end, all hell breaks loose.

Badass cinema, my friends.




Videodrome
This one is one hell of a trip.
My mind was going crazy halfway through.
I have to rewatch this again to understand
it a little more.
"Long live the new flesh."
The third act has a Taxi Driver feel to it.
All the crazy stuff that happens here is unbelievable.
Technology, hallucinations, mind warps
are fused together and this came out way before "The Matrix."

My body kept wanting to go to sleep.
I drifted away a few times during this movie, but
from what I remembered, overall I thought it was alright.
A little too bizarre for me.

Who Can Kill A Child?

Who Can Kill A Child?
This is a spanish exploitation flick about children
who are damn evil.
The first two acts are a slow setup for that
crazy third act.
Love that infamous human piñata scene.
I heard about this movie for the first time a while back.
My friend, Ramon, found an interview with Eli Roth
saying that this movie and Cannibal Holocaust are two
of his favorite movies or something.
I ended up putting this movie
on my blockbuster queue. But it took forever to
finally be available. And here we are.
They say that this is controversial.
It wasn't that extreme, but I can see why they say
that about this. This is crazy for its time.

Good structure and plot.

The Lovely Bones

New Release Tuesdays Presents:

The Lovely Bones
Long, but intense.
Like the performances in this film.
Never read the book (not much of a book reader),
but I liked the story here.
Everything was good except for a few parts towards the end
(didn't like the poet guy kissing the ghost).
One of the most intense scenes I've seen in a while
takes place when Suzie's sister breaks into the killer's house.
My heart was pounding a little.

Beautiful colors.
Decent entertainment.

Bitch Slap

Bitch Slap
B movie trashy masterpiece
with some chicks, guns, blood, and action.
That sums up this whole movie.
The plot was made to be a little ridiculous.
Of course, not to take seriously.
This was a little fun.
Cheesy one-liners and some bad acting.
I don't know if they did that on purpose or not.
But, I thought it was okay for this kind of movie.
The editing sucks a little.

If you like these new movies that have been coming out
that pays tribute to exploitation and vintage flicks
(like Hellride, Sukiyaki Western Django, and Planet Terror),
then check this out. If not, then I don't recommend it.

Slammin' Salmon

Slammin' Salmon
Not quite up there with my favorite Broken Lizard movie,
Beerfest. But, it's semi decent.
I was cracking up during the first half.
I used to work in the restaurant service industry
for 3 years during college (Midland Country Club),
so I can relate to this environment and some of the jokes.
Love some of the exaggerations, but I felt
the story wasn't strong enough to say, "wow!"

Good for a one night stand of entertainment.
If you decide to watch this, order you the swordfish
and a special dessert containing a poop flavored ring.

Defendor

Defendor
I guess, it was alright.
Nothing to make a big fuzz about.
The movie is a little depressing.
There's some good comedic moments,
but it's slow and boring at times.
Saw this tonight because I saw "Kick Ass" earlier,
and I was in the mood to see another superhero movie
in the same vein.
I love the concept on this movie.
The superhero here (played by Woody Harrelson)
gets his ass kicked a shit load of times,
but he has a good heart.
He doesn't have special gadgets, he uses
low budget things like marbles or lime juice.

This is a cross between Mirageman and Taxi Driver.
If that mix interests you, then check this out.
If not, you're not missing anything special.

Kick Ass (2010)

Kick Ass
The title says it all.
I ordered me a Midnight Expresso Shake
right before this movie to get my sugar
levels going.
This movie starts out with a decent flow and
moves rapidly to a great level of "awesomeness."
Let re-phrase that, it goes from decent to awesome to awesomeness.
The climax pays off.
To me, this was "Mirageman meets Superbad,"
but with its own style.
Hit Girl steals the show.

Highly recommended!
Also, if you haven't seen it yet, I recommend Mirageman
(an independent superhero movie from Chile).

Kung Fu Panda

Animation Night Presents:

Kung Fu Panda
Sweet kung fu animation.
It was definitely a fun time.
The plot was awesome.
Only Jack Black can pull off voicing a dumb panda
who later kicks ass.
The storyline is the usual kung fu situation.
This reminded me of several kung fu flicks worth
mentioning, 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Iron Monkey and
my personal favorite: Five Fingers of Death.
I feel like watching more.
Props to my friend from work, Mike, who persuaded me
to watch this on Animation Night this month.

I'm sure, most have seen this. If you're one of
those poor unfortunate souls like me who avoided watching this
for a long time, do yourself a favor, watch it.

The Grand Duel

Spaghetti Western Night Presents:

The Grand Duel
Decent western we have here.
Not as violent as I thought it was going to be.
Lee Van Cleef plays the usual role as
the man in black.
The best part of this movie is the wonderful
score from Luis Bacalov (including the theme song
of this movie which is also featured in Kill Bill Vol 1).
My favorite part is when they reveal who killed
the father of the three brothers.
There's a nice little standoff at the end of the movie.
Not as good as other spaghetti westerns but
not as bad as some of the bad ones.

This is a hard to find.
The DVD I bought, has a poor quality transfer of this movie.
This is recommended only for fans of the genre,
especially if you're fan of Death Rides A Horse.

Pirate Radio

New Release Tuesdays Presents:

Pirate Radio
The badass soundtrack makes this movie worth to see.
My favorite Rolling Stones song is on here,
and I got a little crazy whenever it came on.
We have a good cast and a decent story.
It's Titanic without the penguin suits.
It's the "in your face rebellion" story.
The music says it all.

Good decent movie for a good time.
Now, I need to buy the soundtrack and put it in the ipod.

Tenure

Tenure
Nice little comedy with some heart.
It has an artsy feel to it.
And if you're fan of bigfoot, then
you got to see this.
There was a few smiles here and there.
This is not a laughing comedy, but a smart one.

If the movie "Freedom Writers" got together with
the movie "Rushmore", then this must be their baby.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Linda's Chick Flick Night Presents:

The Time Traveler's Wife
Linda's pick for this month was this part drama
part sci fi flick.
By looking at the trailer, I thought, here's this
typical romance drama.
After watching this, it was quite good.
It's more drama than romance.
At first it was somewhat confusing,
but then I got the hang of it.
The casting was great.
There's sad sappy moments, but
it's necessary for this kind of story.

So my final comment is, this is a good movie
to watch with your better half.

Black Devil Doll

Black Devil Doll
Holy crap!!
I knew what I was getting myself into.
I heard this was so bad that it's good.
I had to get this out of my system.
So I say it again, "holy crap!!"
And crap it is.
I had a few beers with me to be able to enjoy this.
So this is what I thought,
the first 30 minutes of getting to know this doll
was actually funny. Stupid funny.
Very low budget feel.
The rest of the film was a little annoying.
The bloody scenes wasn't all that.
Basically, the first half was kinda like a soft core porn,
and the second half was the killing scenes.
Both done very cheesy, of course.

I don't think I ever want to see this again.
And I strongly don't recommend this to no one.
At your own risk.

Deep Red

Deep Red
For today's movie standards, this isn't scary.
There were some scary scenes, but not overall.
For its time period, this is some crazy shit.
I like the beginning sequence.
The camera shots were also good.
The story was not that impressive for me.
But I do like this slasher flick as a whole.
I've only seen one other Dario Argento film.
That film was, Suspiria.
I enjoyed Deep Red just a little more than Suspiria.

The only other things I didn't like about this one
was the pacing of the movie and the ending.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

New Release Tuesdays Presents:


Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Not bad. Unexpectedly weird slow driven film.
Nicholas Cage's performance was wonderful
(a lot better than the crap he's been in for the past few
years). Love the trippy hallucination scenes.
For a second there, I thought I was high with this dude.
I was expecting a little more action.

Movie is a little over two hours, you got to be a little patient.
Expect some strangeness and a little bit of confusion.
This was okay, nothing more and nothing less.

Capitalism: A Love Story

Documentary Night Presents:

Capitalism: A Love Story
The latest from Michael Moore wasn't exactly
one of his best. I'm a fan of Michael Moore.
Regardless, if he's full of shit or not, he makes
interesting documentaries.
This one got me a little confused in the first half.
The flow is usually better in his other films.
For some reason, that wasn't working for me here.
The overall message was clear.
Like his past two films, there's less humor
and more serious stuff.
I think this is the first time I heard Moore say
a few bad words like "What the fuck?"

This is for Moore fans only.
For everybody else, I recommend Bowling for Columbine
(my favorite Moore documentary).

The Baader Meinhof Complex

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
Good action scenes in this hardcore political thriller.
But, it was a long ass movie.
This needs multiple viewings to process all the information.
I lost track of what was going on half the time.
Love the use of music on here (the beginning
and the final credits).
This was both crazy and intense.
Can't believe this was all based on true events
by actual terrorists.

This German flick is not for the regular movie person.
If you like movies like Sophie Scholl: The Final Days or Che,
then check this out.
I thought it was decent.